1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the manufacture of flexible article-receiving bags, and to the configuration and structural and functional features of said bags. It is more particularly directed to a method and apparatus for on site and on demand manufacturing of flexible bags, custom-sized to conform to the volume of articles packed therein, at a check-out counter of, for example, a supermarket or other sales establishment, and to the flexible bags thereby produced.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Current practice at supermarkets is to have a cashier operator register, either by automated scanner or direct manual keyboard entry, or both, the prices of the various articles purchased by a customer. The cashier, an assistant, or the customer then places the articles or goods in a bag which has generally been preformed most commonly either of plastic material or of paper. Such an operation is time consuming and awkward and often results in inefficient and awkward processing of customers through the supermarket checkout counter. Similar practices and attendant problems exist at department stores and other retail establishments.
The paper and plastic bags currently in use exhibit several noteworthy drawbacks that negatively impact upon both customer convenience and merchant efficiency and costs. The bags, after the purchased goods have been placed therein, remain open at their tops. This creates the substantial risk and not uncommon occurrence that the bags' contents may inadvertently spill out of the bags as the customer removes them from the store to their eventual destination--particularly when the bags are transported by car or bicycle or the like, and even when they are hand carried.
Moreover, in order to properly accommodate the great majority of customer purchases, the preformed bags are sized with sufficiently large dimensions for holding a substantial number of articles. In actual use, however, the volume of articles packed in the bags varies greatly from bag to bag resulting in customer difficulty and inconvenience in manipulating a combination of filled and partially filled open-topped bags, in substantial waste of materials and in increased cost to the merchant.